


The Gift of Giving

by ericsonclan



Series: Ericson's Diner AU [57]
Category: The Walking Dead (Telltale Video Game)
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Christmas Party, Christmas Presents, F/F, F/M, Friendship, Gen, Secret Santa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:09:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28269654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ericsonclan/pseuds/ericsonclan
Summary: Everyone gathers at Ericson's Diner to celebrate with a Christas party and Secret Santa.
Relationships: Aasim/Ruby (Walking Dead: Done Running), Brody/Mitch (Walking Dead: Done Running), Clementine/Louis (Walking Dead: Done Running), Louis & Violet (Walking Dead: Done Running), Marlon & Rosie (Walking Dead: Done Running), Prisha/Violet (Walking Dead: Done Running)
Series: Ericson's Diner AU [57]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1688374
Kudos: 4





	The Gift of Giving

**Author's Note:**

> (by Laura)

“Shit,” Violet muttered, trying her best to reach the top of the Christmas tree and place the star. Why did Louis have to buy such a huge tree for the diner? Even standing on one of the restaurant’s chairs wasn’t enough to get her to the top of the tree. “Stupid kids running around when they should be eating and shit,” Violet grumbled. It had been hard enough getting this star up the first time. Doing it again because of rowdy customers pissed her off.

Suddenly she felt her legs rise off the chair. Violet let out a little squeak of surprise before looking down and seeing her girlfriend smiling below her. Prisha chuckled. “Sorry for the scare. I figured you could use a hand,”

“Thanks,” Violet murmured, feeling rather flustered at the feeling of Prisha’s hands on her waist. She hadn’t known she was this strong. The extra few inches gave her enough height to safely put the star back in place. Prisha promptly lowered her to the ground, her hands hovering on Violet’s waist for a second longer.

“Hey, you two!” Louis exclaimed, striding into the room in a Santa costume, a bounce in his step. “Oh, Vi, you got the star back up! That’s great! Thought I’d have to ask Mitch or Marlon to do it before the party started,” Louis’ arms were full of all sorts of presents which he deposited on one of the booth tables. “Care to help me stack all the center tables to the sides? The others should be coming any minute now!”

“Where are Brody and Clem?” Violet asked, looking round the room as she picked up a chair to start stacking. “They just finished their shift too so they said they’d be sticking around,”

“They’re helping Ruby and Omar finish the final details on the party snacks. They’re gonna be delish!” Louis licked his lips excitedly. He toted a table by himself across the room before returning for another. “I’m so glad the snow slowed down outside! I was starting to get worried that half of the staff would miss out on their final Secret Santa gifts if they couldn’t make the drive in,”

“If that had been the case, we simply could have left the presents in their cubbies in the break room,” Prisha stated.

“Noooo,” Louis pouted. “It’s not the same if you don’t get to see the reactions!”

Violet cast a knowing smile her best friend’s way. Louis never changed. He always loved gift-giving most of all out of any part of Christmas. Letting out a small grunt, she lifted a set of stacked chairs and walked quickly toward the far wall. Louis had said he wanted to make a big circle with all the staff for the gift exchange so they’d need all the floor space they could get.

“Awesome!” Louis looked at their work proudly, his hands on his hips. “Now onto the music. Prisha, can you help me connect my iPod to the diner speakers? I put a special playlist together for tonight,”

“Of course,” Prisha headed with Louis over to the bar where the speaker system was, leaving Violet on her own. It was only a few seconds though before Brody and Clementine strode out carrying trays of Christmas cookies and hot cocoa. They still had the antlers on from their shift today. Violet felt lucky she’d been able to wriggle her way out of the seasonal uniform changes Louis had instituted. These two didn’t seem to mind though.

“Hey, Vi,” Brody said cheerily, setting the hot cocoa down on the next booth over from the presents. “You’re not dressing up for the party?”

Violet shrugged, tapping her Christmas nametag that was emblazoned with holly. “Got my Christmas decoration right here,”

Clementine placed the cookies down as well and joined them. “What are we talking about? Secret Santa gifts? I got my person something I’m hoping will blow their socks off!”

Brody smiled shyly. “I don’t want to brag, but I think I did pretty great too. How about you, Vi?”

Before Violet could answer, Louis came running over, wildly waving his hands. “No telling who you got for Secret Santa! It’s supposed to be a surprise till the last second!”

“Chill, Lou,” Clementine chuckled, slipping her hand into his. “Everything’s still hush hush. You make a very cute Santa, by the way,”

That got Louis distracted. His face heated up and he looked flustered, murmuring something about how Clem looked even cuter before tugging on one of his dreads.

Violet smirked. She’d tease him if she didn’t know it’d be thrown back into her face tenfold. Maybe sometime when Prisha wasn’t around to be used against her she’d bring this moment up.

Suddenly the front doors burst open and a flurry of wind and snow whoosed into the restaurant. Mitch strode in, bundled from head to toe, Marlon following close behind him. “We made it!” Mitch announced, stomping the snow from his boots before heading into the main part of the diner. “It snowed a shit ton today, but the roads are still clear enough to make it through. Are we late?”

“Nah, we’re still waiting on the twins, Renata and Aasim,” Louis walked forward to greet his friends only for his eyes to widen in excitement as he noticed Rosie beside Marlon. “No way! You brought Rosie?”

“Yep! I hope that’s OK. I made sure she went to the bathroom before we left so she should be good for the whole party,” Marlon chuckled as Louis was already on his knees before Rosie, laughing as she licked his face.

“This is gonna be our best party yet!”

“Now that we’re here it will!” Renata’s voice was heard from the service hall before the double doors burst open and she strode through with a proud smile, Sophie and Minnie walking side by side behind her. “Let the fun begin!”

“Awesome! So we’re only missing Aasim then. Hope he won’t be long,” Louis took out his phone to check for messages,

“Oh, you don’t have to check, Sug,” Ruby said, coming out from the double doors with Omar by her side. “He gave me a call about a half hour ago, said he’d be a bit late. But he’ll be here in time for presents.”

“Well, ok then. With everyone else present, let the festivities begin!” Louis did a dramatic twirl before tossing his Santa hat high in the air. “First game of the night: the limbo!”

There were plenty of games to be played at the Ericson’s Diner Christmas party. Those who wanted to like Louis and Renata participated in all of them while some of the quieter staff members stood off to the sides and enjoyed the music, conversation and snacks. Sophie found herself constantly torn between games and snacks and could be seen running back and forth, her mouth full of treats before she joined in on bowling for snowmen or blindman’s bluff.

Eventually once everyone was full of cookies and cocoa and the Christmas games had reached a lull it was time for Secret Santa. Aasim had snuck in at some point during the festivities, giving Ruby a quick kiss before settling into a booth with Omar to chat. Louis called everyone to sit in a circle and place their gifts in the center. He then stood by the pile of presents, making sure everyone was seated before clearing his throat. “Now that everyone is present, we can enjoy all the presents! Now, let me just reach into my handy dandy Santa cap which I’ve filled with everyone’s names, and the first one to go is… Clementine!” Louis held up the name proudly, displaying it to everyone before flashing a grin his girlfriend’s way. “And whose secret Santa were you, my sweet?”

“I was Aasim’s secret Santa,” Clementine gave a nod to her friend, sharing a smile before she stood to grab his gift. “I hope this isn’t something you already have and I just didn’t know. I thought it was pretty cool,”

Aasim took the present and unwrapped it, his eyes widening with interest as the gift was revealed. “An electronic notebook!” He squinted as he read the text on the back of the box. “Save digital versions of your planner pages to popular cloud services like Google drive, Dropbox, Evernote, box, OneNote, Slack, iCloud, email and more,”

“I figured this way you won’t have a ton of notebooks to look through if you want to reference something. You can just have all your information in one place,”

“Thank you, Clem. What a thoughtful gift,” Aasim looked down at his new notebook happily, clearly intrigued by it.

Louis reached into his Santa hat, giving it a dramatic twirl. “Next up is… Sophie!”

“Oooh, that’s me!” Sophie exclaimed, jumping up from her spot and scurrying over to her gift. I was Ruby’s secret Santa!” she dropped the gift into her friend’s lap with a bright smile.

Ruby let out a little grunt as the package plonked down on her legs. “Oof, heavier than expected,” She unwrapped her gift and revealed an unusually shaped baking tin. “Now what do we have here?”

“It’s cookie shot glasses!” Sophie exclaimed, bouncing on her feet excitedly. “So you bake the cookies in the shape of teeny shot glasses then instead of alcohol you do shots of milk!”

“Why, that’s quite the unique gift!” Ruby chuckled, setting the tin beside her. “I’ll be sure to put it to good use this Christmas,”

“Yeee, you like it!” Sophie did a happy little twirl before sitting back down.

“Two secret Santas, two awesome gifts! Let’s keep up the trend!” Louis declared. Shuffling around the cards in his hat, he drew the next name. “Oh, Minnie! Right after your twin!”

“And my twin’s the recipient of my gift,” Minnie replied, calmly rising to grab her gift.

“I knew it was you!” Sophie exclaimed, her eyes sparkling with excitement. “I just knew it!”

“Bet you don’t know what I got you though,” Minnie quipped, handing over the gift.

It was an album of photoshopped pictures of the twins and their family and friends. The once normal photos were now crazy pictures of them on the moon or as cats or with everybody at Ericson’s Diner but the twins were huge and held the rest of the staff in their hands. Sophie gasped and giggled at each and every picture as she flipped through the book. She cradled the album in her arms, her smile vibrant. “I love it! You’re the best, as always!”

Minnie shrugged, a small smile on her lips. “Knew I had to nail it considering I should know you better than anyone else,”

“Ahh, sisterly love. Is there anything better in the world?” Louis wiped a mock tear of his own from his eye before continuing. “Next is... Clem! Oh wait, that can’t be right. One sec…” Rummaging through the hat, Louis tossed out the names he had already drawn. “Ok, we’re all in the clear. And next is… Mitch!”

“I got Renata,” Mitch stood up and snatched his gift, tossing it over to the brunette. “Don’t know what sorta shit you’re into but I thought you’d like this,”

Renata tore into her present excitedly, tossing the wrapping paper dramatically to the side. She let out a loud gasp. “It’s henna!” She held up the henna kit for everyone to see. “This is awesome! I’m gonna put tattoos all over my face!”

“Hell yeah,” Mitch nodded in approval.

“Please don’t,” Ruby said, looking concerned.

Before Renata could come up with a retort, Louis had moved on to the next secret Santa. “Violet! It’s your turn to shine!”

Violet silently shuffled to her feet, silently grabbing her gift from the pile and handing it to Omar. “Here. I hope you like it,”

Omar carefully undid the wrapping paper. His eyes lit with interest as he unveiled his gift. “Texan Cooking: 101 Recipes. Thank you, Vi. I don’t have anything like this in my collection yet,”

A small smile alighted on Violet’s lips. “I’m glad,” Without another word she returned to her seat next to Prisha but a second later Prisha’s name had been called.

Prisha rose and took her present from the dwindling pile. “I was Louis’ secret Santa. I tried to pick something I think you’d quite enjoy,” Prisha carefully handed over a small square present.

Louis opened it with care, finding a cardboard box inside which he also opened with caution before his eyes lit up in wonder. In his hand he held a tiny silver piano. Intricate silver details decorated its entirety. Turning it over, Louis rotated a small lever. “La Vie En Rose” began to play softly. Louis’ eyes welled up with unshed tears. “It’s beautiful, Prish,” He stared at the gift for several seconds, long enough to make it clear he was utterly distracted.

Clearing her throat, Clementine gently took the hat from her boyfriend’s hands. “How ‘bout I take a turn, babe?” Louis nodded silently and took a seat in the circle, still lost in admiring his gift. Prisha was practically beaming with pride at the success of her gift.

“Alright, guys,” Clementine went digging in the hat and pulled out a new name. “It’s Brody’s turn!”

Brody bounced up from the floor, looking excited and nervous as she picked up a rather large present. “I was Mitch’s secret Santa,”

“No way,” Mitch exclaimed, his eyes large. “Then that time you were asking for gift ideas…?”

“I was shopping for you,” Brody nodded, smiling proudly. “Here ya go!”

Mitch ripped off the wrapping paper and let out an impressed whistle. “Dr. Gross’ Candy Lab Madness. No way! You get to make your own candy?”

“Yep! I figured you and Willy would have fun working on it together,”

“This is the shit! You’re totally coming over to make this with us too!”

“I can’t wait!” Brody leaned over to plant a kiss on her boyfriend’s forehead then took her seat beside him once more, blushing as Mitch softly wrapped an arm round her waist.

Clementine smiled over at her friends having their moment before continuing. “Next is Ruby!”

“I had Prisha,” Ruby declared, rolling onto her feet and picking up her gift before walking over and gently placing it in Prisha’s hands. “I hope I got the right size,”

Prisha looked intrigued by the statement. She opened the present to find a pair of crimson faux leather gloves inside. “Why, Ruby, these are extraordinary!” She pulled one on, admiring the craftsmanship. “And they fit perfectly! Thank you!”

“I’m glad. They look lovely on you,” Ruby smiled warmly before returning to her spot.

“Alrighty, next up is Renata,”

“I got Marlon!” Renata shouted. Crawling forward, she grabbed her gift and chucked it at the blond’s head.

Marlon caught the package with ease, opening it quickly. His face lit up with excitement. “Matching sweaters for me and Rosie!” He immediately got to work helping Rosie who was laying between him and Sophie get hers on. “Thanks, Renata! These are the best!”

“Worth every penny,” Renata grinned proudly.

Clementine grinned as they all admired Rosie in her new Christmas sweater. “Cute. Alright, Aasim is up next,”

Aasim grabbed a slender rectangular present from the pile before clearing his throat. “Minnie, I was your secret Santa. I hope you enjoy what I selected,”

Minnie took the gift that was handed her and calmly unwrapped it. A smile came to her lips as she held up the gift inside. “It’s a collection of Disney songs arranged for the guitar. Thanks, Aasim. These’ll be fun to try out,”

Aasim nodded in approval, clearly satisfied that he’d chosen well as they watched Minnie flip through the different songs with interest.

“Next is Omar,” Clementine declared, dropping the slip of paper to the ground. “We’re down to the last few,”

“I was Brody’s secret Santa,” Omar rose to his feet and carried a small present bag over to his friend. Brody reached inside and pulled out a CD. “Oooh, you got music for me to listen to on my drives?”

“Not quite. It’s actually music to sleep too. I remember you mentioned sometimes you have a hard time getting to sleep so I figured a collection of nature sounds would be nice,”

“That’s so sweet, Omar! Thank you, that’s really thoughtful,” Brody’s smile was warm as she got up quickly to hug her friend. Omar returned the hug warmly before walking back over to his seat on the floor.

“OK, last one, guys,” Clementine said, looking at the small present wrapped in dark blue, star-filled wrapping paper. “I bet we all know who that goes to. Louis, take it away,”

“My secret Santa giftee was Violet!” Louis chirped. Leaning forward, he got a hold of his gift and slid it across the circle to his best friend. “Go ahead, Vi. Open it!”

Violet opened the gift with caution, not wanting to mar the wrapping paper but feeling self-conscious of all the eyes on her. Inside was a jewelry case. She opened it to find a delicate charm bracelet with two charms upon it: a golden sun and a silver moon.

“I know you don’t like dealing with jewelry, but for this I figured you’d make an exception,” Louis explained with a grin.

A small smile was on Violet’s face as Prisha helped her put the charm bracelet on. “It’s really cool, Lou. You’re right. I will wear this,”

“Yipee!” Louis threw his arms up in the air in celebration. “And with that everyone- wait a minute,” He paused, counting out the presents on his fingers before looking toward his other best friend. “Marlon, we missed you! And the one person who hasn't gotten a gift is..." Louis' eyes widened in horror. "Clem! Oh shit, did we forget Clem? Was she here when the names were drawn? There's no presents left! What are we gonna-"

"Lou, chill!" Marlon said, jumping up to his feet and walking toward the bar. "I didn't add the present to the pile since I didn't want it to get damaged. It's right over here," He emerged from the bar holding something in one hand behind his back. Walking over to Clementine, Marlon raised a finger. "Close your eyes and carefully hold out your hands,"

Clementine did as instructed, her eyes squeezed tightly shut in excitement.

Marlon placed the present into her hands then quietly returned to his spot. "OK, now open them,"

Clementine opened her eyes and looked down and her hands, oohing in excitement when she saw what was there. "Is this a venus fly trap? I've never seen one in real life!"

"Yep!" Marlon grinned proudly. "I heard you and Violet talking about how badass they were in the break room a few weeks ago and I knew it'd make the perfect gift! Had to be careful with it though - it needs to keep warm and have lots of humidity if possible so I didn't want to wrap it and have it wilt. I hope it's not too hard to take care of,"

"I'll take the best care of it ever!" Clementine declared, her eyes shining with determination. "Thanks, Marlon!"

Louis' smile was soft as he watched his girlfriend tenderly trace her fingers along the leaves of her new plant. “Alright, and with that the secret Santa gift exchange is over. But the fun continues!” He jumped to his feet, grabbing his Santa hat from Clementine and putting it back on his head. “Who’s ready to party?”

“Wooo!” Renata cheered, joined quickly by Sophie.

The party picked up again quickly, everyone resuming their previous roles of joining in games or participating in snack-filled conversations. The party would continue for as long as they all wished. They enjoyed each other’s company, so knowing the staff it would probably go on for quite some time yet. That was fine though. They were all energized by the presents and fun, each of them feeling their own excitement as Christmas grew ever nearer. It was another successful Ericson’s Diner Christmas party to close out a great year.


End file.
